Sabrine of Greywall
}} Sabrine of Greywall is a ghost of a past age, desperately clinging to fading memories. Descended from the prestigious martial House of Vanderleigh, Sabrine was married young to the aging widower Roderick Mallory, Count of Greywall. The Plague took their entire family in the Third War, but unlike her husband and their young children, Sabrine one day found her way home. Rallying the now-Undead denizens of Greywall, Sabrine reformed the County under Lordaeron's banner, pledging allegiance to the Banshee Queen but maintaining the legacy of the proud kingdom it was before. Description Those who look upon Sabrine might still find her beautiful, but where her beauty was warm and rich in life, it is cold and haunting in death. She was of average height, with a slender but toned figure in life. Wavy raven locks spilled down her shoulders or were caught up in a bun if she were riding. Now she bears the familiar pallid complexion of the damned, her cheeks and limbs still bearing the scars of the pox of her final weeks of life. As she was raised soon after death, she remains well-preserved by the Lich King's dark magic, with only a few joints and other well-exercised parts of her flesh having atrophied. She still bears herself with a regal posture, her pale yellow eyes of lichfyre flashing with resolve. Sabrine still possesses a wardrobe of gowns that survived Lordaeron's fall, but it is rare to see the self-proclaimed Lord Marshal of Silverpine in anything but the armor of a cavalier. A faded tabard bearing the double-headed eagle of Lordaeron decorates her iron breastplate. A pale blue cloak falls down her back from her pauldroned shoulders, covering a burnt leather sheath bearing her longsword. A visored helm obscures her slowly desiccating features, completing the illusion of the warrior-countess of a past age. She will often carry a lance into battle as well, the tip fluttering with the heraldry of Lordaeron. History A noble life, even that of one born into the most minor of aristocratic circles, has many benefits, one of which is the presence of often-extensive records of one's life. Sabrine Theodora Mallory's history is therefore relatively well known, despite the numerous blanks caused by the collapse of Lordaeron's aristocracy. House Vanderleigh Sabrine was the third of four children born to Lord Theodore Vanderleigh of Vanderleigh Keep, and his only daughter. House Vanderleigh had only recently been elevated to the aristocracy, and even then only on the periphery; Lord Theodore was technically a baron, but he was typically referred to merely as "Lord," as his holdings only truly consisted of a holdfast reinforced into a fortress during the Second War. Prior to this, he was merely a local landholder. His wife was a commoner named Sarah Holden, a seamstress. Despite their relatively common blood and low noble ranking, Lord Theodore was a respected figure who had served valiantly as a cavalry officer and a knight for many years in Lordaeron's service, including during the Second War. House Vanderleigh were vassals of the ducal House Barov of Caer Darrow, and her brothers would all go on to serve as knights and retainers for House Barov or the Royal Army. Sabrine's early education was little different than that of her brothers; a family's whose only prestige came from war and chivalry would not neglect to instill the same virtues and skills in its daughter. As such, she was trained to ride and duel from an early age. It was only after her father's elevation to baronhood in Sabrine's early teen years that she came to be seen by her father as her family's only true chance at social climbing. He immediately arranged for tutors for the young woman to have her instructed in etiquette and statecraft. Sabrine proved an able student and picked up a lady's skillset quickly, and she soon became a well-known and popular figure in the western Eastweald. Having come up amongst the peasantry, she was seen as friendly and approachable by the lower classes, while her beauty, elegance, and father's martial prestige caught the eye of her betters. While she would never make the wife of a duke or prince, it was not unreasonable to believe that she would marry well above what her father could have dreamed for at her birth, and as such many of her early suitors - typically local landowners and knights - were turned down. In May of 14 LC, Sabrine was presented in Vicar's Peak to the Count of Greywall, Roderick Mallory. Mallory was an elderly widower, nearing 60, whose wife and heirs had all perished in the Second War. Mallory's county had recently lost much of its political importance, as the border it once held with Gilneas had been pushed southward by the construction of the Greymane Wall and the ceding of southern Silverpine to Lordaeron, and as such few high-standing noble families were interesting in pairing one of their eligible daughters with the aging Count, who had already sired adult sons. However, it presented a perfect opportunity for the rising star of House Vanderleigh, and whether it was desperation for an heir, Lord Theodore's status as a war hero, or Sabrine's own allure that sealed the bargain, Sabrine was married within a week in a lavish ceremony at Vicar's Peak. House Mallory As Countess, Sabrine took a fairly active role in the lives of the common people, though she left much of the politicking to her husband. Sabrine was known for riding with her honor guard into the towns under House Mallory's control and staying in the local inn for a few nights, mingling with the peasantry and hearing the grievances of local landowners. It became commonplace for local festivals and hunts to be graced with her presence, drawing crowds from across the county. This should not be mistaken necessarily for Sabrine being an advocate for the proletariat. Even before she and her family were formally granted nobility, she had been raised as the child of a knight and landowner, and her friends and acquaintances outside aristocratic circles tended to be of the merchant class. Regardless, her image was largely one of a noble for the people. She bore two children in the next six years. Her first son, Roderick, was born in June of 15 LC, and her second son Theodus was born in December of 17 LC, both healthy young boys who bore their father's iconic cocoa-dark skin. Roderick was raised personally by his father and mother, being groomed as the heir, while it appears that Sabrine was attempting to arrange for Theodus to become a ward of her father or perhaps her older brother Leonhard, then the commander of the Royal Army internment camp Stout Hill. Regardless of her intentions, these plans never came to fruition, as the onset of the Plague in 20 LC quickly threw the kingdom into disarray. The Count Greywall, whose health had been slowly fading already in his later years, was quickly incapacitated by the disease, and Sabrine's attempts to personally minister to him only led to herself taking ill as well. The Count Greywall was declared deceased and interred in the family mausoleum on March 2, 20 LC, with his four-year-old son Roderick succeeding him with Sabrine as his regent, but Sabrine's health was already deteriorating. Records from this point onward are scarce as increasingly large swathes of the population of Vicar's Peak succumbed to the Plague, but Vicar's Peak was known to be firmly in the hands of the Cult of the Damned by April of 20 LC. Both Sabrine and her children are presumed to have died in the weeks prior. Undeath There is little that can be stated for certain about the time immediately following Sabrine's reanimation. The cultists operating out of Vicar's Peak left few notes behind to be found, and even then they cared little for the distinction between a ghoul raised from a common farmer and a ghoul raised from the nobility. Sabrine's lord husband and their two children were never located, and as such there is no proof any of them survived their time as Scourge puppets - that is if they were even raised at all. The Mallory family crypts are empty, however, implying the use of the deceased counts as minions of the Cult. It can be presumed that Sabrine attained free will at a similar point in history as Sylvanas Windrunner and the Forsaken, which is to say in mid-to-late 21 LC, though there are no records to confirm this. Sabrine would not appear on records again until 23 LC, when Forsaken scouting reports took note of an armed caravan flying her banners in central Silverpine. An exact count of her followers at the time was not able to be conducted, though estimates placed it somewhere between 100 and 150, only a fraction of whom were warriors. Minor skirmishes would erupt between Sabrine's followers and the Scarlet Crusade and Scourge remnants, but otherwise the caravan seems to have suffered most from internal disputes. Accounts from former camp followers attest to Sabrine being erratic and unstable as a leader, going without sleep for weeks at a time. Few anticipated that she would survive long, let alone achieve any prominence. Lord-Marshal of Silverpine In the summer of 24 LC, the situation in Silverpine changed drastically. The Scourge remnant, which had for the longest time been the most powerful faction in the region, was dwindling from attrition and lack of reinforcements, a downfall that was only hastened by incursions by the Forsaken from the north and Dalarani from the south, and the emergence of the elite Scarlet Crusade sect the Hand of the Unblinded, which had established a fortress known as Memorandum Keep in the mountains. The Cult of the Damned's grip on the County of Greywall grew tenuous, and many of their members withdrew to Vicar's Peak for protection. Sabrine took advantage of this exodus, sneaking herself and several of her warriors into the city under the guise of a necromancer and their minions. Once inside, Sabrine's forces quickly overtook the cultists' defenses, executing the lot of them and reestablishing control over the county. Sabrine took on the title of Countess of Greywall and declared herself Lord Marshal of Silverpine by means of letters to the surrounding powers. The Banshee Queen is said to have laughed at the message and never bothered to send a reply. Meanwhile, the Unblinded left her messenger hanging from a tree with the unopened letter clamped within his jaw, sewn closed. However, word ultimately trickled down to the free-willed Undead in Silverpine, many of whom flocked to Sabrine's banner and attempted to reestablish themselves in their old lives in the towns surrounding Vicar's Peak. The County of Greywall is said to have boasted one of the closest facsimiles to pre-Plague life among the Undead, though whether this is something to be proud of or simply a sad illusion remains subjective. As Sabrine's influence in western Silverpine grew, diplomatic relations between the Forsaken and the County of Greywall began, with the Dark Ranger Valythe Enarwyn acting as the primary liaison between the two Undead powers. Sabrine seems to have treated the Dark Ranger as a foreign envoy and considered the extension of diplomatic relations as a recognition of their sovereignty, while it appears that the Banshee Queen saw Sabrine and her followers as her subjects and Valythe as something of a royal overseer; the illusion of sovereignty was simply a means to keep Sabrine content. Sabrine maintains her own armed forces, known as the Last Legion of Lordaeron, separate from the Forsaken Deathguard, but the two militaries cooperate regularly, particularly against the Scarlet forces in Silverpine. Sabrine attempts to maintain a neutral stance towards the Alliance, though she is often regarded as a Horde conspirator due to the close ties her regime has with the Forsaken. Sabrine has ambitions of reestablishing a proper Kingdom of Lordaeron in the spirit of its living history, rather than what she sees as the increasingly nihilistic and destructive culture of the Forsaken, and she has spent much of her time attempting to garner the support she needed to do so, both from among her own people and from potential allies from living Lordaeronians in Southshore and the Argent Dawn. However, her territorial boundaries have not extended far past Greywall's historical county limits, kept in check by pressure by her many nearby foes and inconsistent support from her Forsaken allies, and the growth of Sabrine's domain seems to have stagnated. She still clings fanatically to what territory she does hold, however, unwilling to let her dream of a renewed Lordaeron die. Category:Characters Category:Forsaken Category:Warrior Category:Lordaeron Peerage